Weller Court

     By now, we were getting seriously worried about not getting enough of our list done. But across the street, shining like a beacon of hope, was Weller Court!

     We quickly found the memorial to Ellison Onizuka, one of the astronauts who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. In keeping with the way our day was going, we discovered the monument had a big sign on it saying it was being refurbished. But it was good to take a few moments to honor his memory. (And he certainly deserves a well-cared for monument!)

     By now, the members of our group were so hungry that we were incapable of deciding on a place to eat. Someone mentioned the Curry House, which we found:

     I took pictures of some of the delicious looking food in the window:

     Hunger must have dulled our senses, for instead of going in to eat, we ran up some stairs and posed for a picture, because we’d found the Kyoto Grand Hotel that was on our list!

     We also found the Kinokuniya Book Store and the Marukai Market, but neither one allowed us to take pictures inside.

     We knew there was supposed to be a statue on the corner where Weller Court was located, and indeed, we spotted one across the street. We raced over there for a picture. Was it the statue of Kinjiro Ninomiya we were looking for? We don’t know. Where a plaque identifying the statue should have been, there were just four empty holes. We took the picture anyway!

     Along the way, we found this graffiti-covered bench. I liked the look. I resisted the temptation to add my name to it.

     Hungry and almost out of time, we headed back to Japanese Village Plaza, desperately hoping some restaurants would be open...

Bunkado

     This store was filled with colorful Japanese items, and the owners were nice enough to let us take photographs. There was a whole section of glass cranes, but only one yellow one – which everyone wanted! Somehow, I was lucky enough to get to be the one who bought it.

Jungle

      Next, we stumbled over one of the destinations I was really looking forward to: Jungle! It’s an anime store, and I was hoping to be able to take a peek inside.

    

     Unfortunately, in keeping with what was turning out to be the theme of the day, Jungle was closed.

     We were starting to get frustrated!

     The good news was that we soon realized the Jungle we were supposed to find was located under the Union Bank of California. We had found the wrong store! The bad news was that once we found the correct Jungle, it too was closed.

     We were sad.

     About this time, we started to realize that (a) we were VERY hungry, and (b) there was no way we were going to be able to hit everything left on our list in the time we had remaining. Luckily, just as we realized this, we found a store that was on our list…Bunkado!

Anzen Hardware Store

      We spotted Anzen Hardware Store across the street, and were VERY happy when the kind owner let us come in and take pictures.

     The store was nothing like Home Depot! I found this bonsai tree:

     Some very colorful sandals:

     Boots that look like they’re for people with only two large toes:

     Some boxes that I admit I couldn’t read:

     And shelves filled with everything from backscratchers to baskets!

Fugetsudo Sweet Shop

     We had searched for the Fugetsudo Sweet Shop inside the Japanese Village Plaza and decided to look for it when we came back later. Luckily, we found it right down the street from the hardware store!

     Inside, we found so many delightful sweets that we could have stayed there ALL day. I chose Strawberry Gummy Candy and Orange High Chew, and I also bought a present for my biology partner, who was at school dealing with our fetal pig project while I was buying candy! (Thanks, Camille!) The owners were very kind, and let us take as many pictures as we wanted. Here are some of the delicious treats we found:

     Unfortunately, our chaperone kept checking her watch and tapping her foot, which meant we had to go!

     As we raced down the street to find our next destination, we realized we were running right over golden words placed in the cement of the sidewalk. The first one we found said, “As children we played on this street and all the shopkeepers knew us.” This picture shows our feet as we paused to appreciate that sentiment!

Koyasan Buddhist Temple

     We set off to see what we could find next, and literally stumbled across the Koyasan Buddhist Temple. In fact, we passed it before an observant member of our happy group pointed out that it was on our list, but not on our map!

    

     The temple was closed, but it was very peaceful and pretty out front. We tried to be quick and quiet and respectful, so that nobody started wondering what 11 high school students were doing in front of the temple so early in the morning!

Yagura: Japanese Village Plaza

     We were excited to be among the first groups to explore Japanese Village Plaza. With great anticipation, we raced across the street, stopping only to take photos in front of the big red tower at the entrance to the plaza.

     We quickly realized that we were right in front of  the first destination on our long list: Yagura! We thought Yagura was a restaurant, which turned out to be closed.  But we took pictures in front of the sign anyway, to show that we were there.

     Only later did we realize that Yagura is both the name of the restaurant, and the name of the large red fire lookout tower, called a Yagura, that we stopped at in the first place.

     We continued to explore Japanese Village Plaza, only to discover that almost every place was closed. We were happy to find that the Tokyo Japanese Outlet was open, and went inside to take pictures of three unique items, as our list required. Unfortunately, some of us (like me) weren’t fast enough with our cameras, and the store owners told us we couldn’t take any pictures.

     We found the Mitsuru Café, where we were supposed to photograph two food items.

     You guessed it…it was closed. We decided to leave the plaza and come back later when things were open. We had NO idea how difficult that seemingly simple plan would prove to be!